ROBBINS, HARRINGTON 

 FREIRE-MARKECO 



'] ETHNOBOTANY OF THE TEWA INDIANS 85 



after.' They do the same with iiielon aud watermelon seeds. They want to keep 

 the corn of the pueblo. We could buy other seed, and perhajw better, from white 

 people; or we could get seed from other pueblos; but the old men do not want that. 

 They want to keep the very corn of the pueblo, because the corn is the same as the 

 jjeople. 



At Santa Clara, however, seed corn is often imported; one man 

 showed a strain of red corn from Jemez and proposed to get white 

 corn from a friend at Taos, "because it is very cold there, and their 

 corn ought to ripen early here." Other men said that corn from a 

 distant place generally grew larger and better. While they lay stress 

 on color, size of ears, and quick growth and ripening, they seem to 

 neglect depth of planting. But for sowing they prefer the large grains 

 from the lower part of the ear. A few men raise American yellow 

 maize. ^ The introduction of new food plants, e. g., cabbage, is often 

 discouraged by the women, who refuse to cook or eat them. 



The llano people showed themselves highly averse to exchanging 

 seed of their own for that of a New Mexican pueblo, suspecting the 

 "intention" of the senders. 



It is said that at Tesuque, where "the customs" are admittedly very 

 strict, people are allowed to plant only the traditional crops — corn, 

 wheat, melons, watermelons, pumpkins, beans, and chile; anyone who 

 attempted to sow new crops or American seeds would be punished. 

 The same feeling must have been at work in 1680, when the revolted 

 Indians burnt wheat, sheep, pigs, and fowls — all Spanish importations — 

 along with books and images and vestments. 



The Santa Clara people consider it a proof of their own modern 

 liberalism that they allow any kind of seed to be sown. 



The ordinary corn, when it has been husked, comes into the charge 

 of the misti'ess of the house, who sorts it according to quality — 

 some for grinding at home, some for sale, some for feed for the 

 horses. A widower may be seen doing this work for himself. 

 A small quantity of the new corn is shelled off the cob at once and 

 dried on cloths in the sun, to make atole next da3^ When the corn 

 has dried in the open air it is taken into the house, sometimes being 

 pitched into a storeroom through a chimne}^ hole, and tiually the 

 master and mistress of the house stack it in a neat pile, sorted accord- 

 ing to color or quality. 



As soon as people have husked their own household corn they go to 

 help their relations. Widows and orphans and needy persons in 

 general help at as many huskings as possible, receiving a present of 

 corn at each. "Mexicans" are sometimes hired to help, and men go 

 to other pueblos to help relations who are short of help. 



lAt the Keres pueblo of Cochiti a field is cultivated by all the people for the benefit of the 

 cacique. He is expected to keep the corn from this field as a reserve over the next year, in case the 

 people's corn should fail or be destroyed. 



2The Hopi are said to be willing and anxious to use American seeds, 



67961°— Bull. 55—16 7 



